The Hunted
by Rainy129
Summary: How long before we stop waiting for something that will never come? How long before we stop fighting a war that will never end? What happens when all you have is hope, but even that is fading? We are the hunters, yet the hunted. We are the brave; we are the only. We are fighting, but the war has just begun.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 – The Broken**

_"You will lose someone you can't live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn't seal back up, and you come through. It's like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly- that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp." _**–Anne Lamott**

Ava was twelve years old the day she knew her life would never be the same. It wasn't so much as she knew, she could just feel it. From walking in the hallways at school to sitting on the bus. There was something in the air that told her something bad was going to happen. She got home from school with the military captain standing in the doorway talking politely but briskly to her mother. She stopped dead in her tracks as the wind blew her hair around her face. It was the perfect day, cold, dry, and completely blue sky, but something was _wrong_. She watched the men step off her porch and listened to the gravel crunch under their shoes. She was still frozen in place, and couldn't bear the look on their faces.

"I'm really sorry miss. He was a good man." She made a gasping noise while one of them placed a kind hand on her shoulder and continued to trudge along.

"Mom?" She whispered. She didn't remember walking the rest of the way up the driveway, but somehow she was standing in her mother's arms.

"It's fine. Everything's fine." That simple phrase became the normal in her house. Every day, she would hear it. She would hear that terrible, sick lie when they both knew everything was not fine. Her mom was getting more and more depressed, when she had a kid to take care of, when instead, Ava would take care of her. She wouldn't even get out of bed most days.

"Mom, get up," Ava would plead. "Mom, please."

"It's fine, everything's fine."

"You're such a child." It would go like this. On and on, up until the day she wasn't there to say it.

"Mom, I'm home!" Ava called when she walked through the door. She went to the kitchen to get a glass of water then went upstairs. She vaguely noticed the dishes weren't done, but nothing unusual. They never were anymore. "Mom, I need you to sign a form for school!" She called from the living room. "Honestly mother, this whole hide and seek game isn't fun." She walked up the stairs and to her room to set her backpack down then got the form out and walked to her mom's room. "Look mom, I even got a pen for you. Daughter of the year, Mom. Okay, seriously, where are..." Her voice trailed off as she stepped on wet carpet.

Ava looked in the bathroom and the tub was overflowing and there was an empty bottle of pills on the floor. "Mom no, mom what have you done?" She whispered to herself as she saw her lying on the ground, perfectly still. "Mom, don't leave me! Don't leave me alone please!" Ava sobbed.

Again, she didn't remember moving from that spot, but the next thing she was aware of, she was groggily waking up in an uncomfortable hospital chair. They told her she could stay until they find her a foster home. Her expression darkened as she remembered her family was coming to the funeral, but they didn't want anything to do with her after. She sucked in a big breath of air and choked down a sob. A nurse looked up from her station with sympathy and asked her if she needed anything before the foster agent came. Ava shook her head slowly. No, everything she needed was gone.

Ava was standing in front of her mom's closet deciding if she should even bother. She quickly erased that thought and grabbed her mother's favorite outfit. She placed it on the bed carefully and smoothed it out. She drew a shuddering breath and pressed her face into the soft material.

She looked herself over in the mirror skeptically. Her light brown hair was piled on her head carefully, and although her make-up was near perfect, she still felt like it wasn't enough. Her dress was printed with delicate flowers; not something one would expect for a funeral, but she knew her mother hated black, and she wanted to respect that. She decided she'd been to one too many funerals as she slipped on her shoes and took another look at her small, catlike frame, and went downstairs to meet the foster worker.

Ava tried to ignore the whispers of her family blaming her for her mother's death. Ava brought all the home videos from storage out and started playing them softly in the background. She stared at herself run away from her father trying to tickle her. Judging by the look of her post-toddler body, she was most likely four or five. She heard her aunt walk up behind her just as the video showed her father finally grabbed her around the waist and tossed her in the air as she squealed. She turned around and her aunt gave her a disgusted look.

"Why didn't you save her?" Ava could feel the words threatening to spill over, but she tried to hold them in.

"She was already gone when I got home."

"Why didn't you get home sooner?"

"The bus doesn't exactly run to my command."

"Are you smart mouthing me?"

"No," she said, already wanting to smack the woman. "I was answering your question." Her aunt narrowed her eyes to such small slits, Ava wondered if she could see out of them at all.

"You should have died, not her." She spat. Ava could hear the room grow silent at what she said. All eyes were trained on her for her response. All she could get out was an almost silent  
"I know."

"It's quite a drive actually, but I didn't think you would mind being away from this place." The officer said. He'd been rattling on for about twenty minutes about nothing remotely important. The funeral ended quickly after the scene with her aunt, and Ava wondered if his words were supposed to be comforting her or himself.

"I don't mind." She said. She would love to go somewhere far away.

"You're going to need to fill out some paper work on the way there, just telling things about you. Can you do that?"

"Yeah," She said struggling not to roll her eyes. "Where are we going?"

"Texas. You like Texas?"

"I've never been."

"Oh lordy, kid. It's a nice place. Large." She gave a polite laugh. She didn't really care where she went, it didn't matter now. "There'll be about three to four kids there already. They should all be about your age, but I'm not sure of their age."

"That's fine," She said. "Will I be staying there?"

"Until someone takes you in, or you get moved." She expected the latter right away. Who would want an emotionally damaged teenager?

"This heat is ridiculous." Ava complained, coming down the stairs.

"Not used to this in Ohio?" said one of the boys sharing the house. It turned out to be a foster house, with the owners and foster parents next door. It's just for foster kids.

"No," She replied. "It never got this hot." She checked the temperature again. 104 degrees.

"I've lived here my whole life. You get used to it." He said. He was short-ish with curly brown hair and tan skin. Ava wasn't going to lie, he was pretty cute.

"Or I could just stay in the air conditioning." She said sitting down on the couch.

"Excuse me," he said. "That's my foot you sat on." She smirked knowing good and well that he didn't care that she sat on his foot.

"Excuse me, I must have left all my cares in the kitchen. Let me go look for them."

"Bring me back something nice." She just snorted in reply.

"You never told me why you're here." Leo said.

"It's not really something I like talking about."

"Relatable," he pointed out. He stared at her until she finally just blurted out her whole life story. He listened to every word of it intently, eyes never straying from her face. She realized how bad she missed that and longed for it when her dad was gone-when her mother no longer did. She hoped to stay in this house with this boy for as long as she could. She would do anything to feel like she was loved-listened to-whole again.

* * *

_Hello all. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. I've probably edited it about ninety times now, and probably will again, but that's okay.__ Now for some shameless self promoting!  
__DeviantArt: Rainy129  
__Tumblr fandom: robertdowneyjokin  
__Tumblr personal: geek-god  
__If you have any questions for me, feel free to leave a review or you could PM me. I'm always willing to help. Aye, matey's, looks like 'tis time to depart._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2- The Greek**

"_I said to the sun 'tell me about the Big Bang.' The sun said 'it hurts to become'" –Andrea Gibson_

A week later, Ava was transferred to Chicago. She didn't want to go, but Leo promised her he would see her again. _good luck with that_ she thought.  
"Some girl said she was related to you." They told her, but she didn't know any girl that was related to her that didn't hate her.  
"Hallelujah!" she said sarcastically. "I'm not alone!" She stared out the window towards the endless fields of Kansas. Why they insisted on driving, she didn't know. She'd never been to Chicago before, but she was excited to go because she'd always loved big cities. Her mom always told her they were dangerous, but danger excited her.

Ava woke up a few hours later. (She had a real problem with sleeping in the car) and they made it to Chicago. (A/N: I realize this is probably a very unrealistic time frame, but bear with me kids.) It was beautiful there, with skyscrapers dangerously high and the sky was a clear blue. The officer drove her to a building and said for her to wait by the door. "No problem there, I don't like walking far." She grabbed her backpack and walked to the door and waited for him to come with his papers. She stared at the old brick building, thinking of all the bad things She'd done to end up there. She decided the time she colored on the walls when she was five, and blamed it on her cat was the one that sealed the deal.  
"She's only fifteen, but her father is coming home from New York tonight. He has agreed to let you stay there."  
"What's her name?"  
"Laurel Hanwell." Ava knew there wasn't anyone in her family named Laurel, and especially not with the last name Hanwell. "She's intimidating, but don't let that bother you. She's very nice." He led her into the building and up a row of stairs. He opened the door into a room that had a girl in her teens sitting at a chair. Now, when people say someone is beautiful, they're usually exaggerating. This was not anywhere near an exaggeration. She was the most beautiful girl Ava had ever seen, and ever will see. She had gorgeous curly blond hair and green eyes. The curls were like the kind you see in the old roman paintings. Laurel saw her and paused for a second, looked like she was concentrating, then smiled.  
"My name is Laurel," she said. "My mom was cousins with your mom. I'm glad I found you." She seemed nice, but almost too nice, like she was lying or trying to hide something.  
"My mom never talked about having a cousin." Ava said. 'If you're going to accuse someone, you might as well do it quick.' she thought.  
"They weren't very close." She replied. Ava could tell she had a slight accent, but She couldn't tell where it was from. she figured she wasn't going to go anywhere better, so she just went with her.

The house was gorgeous.  
"There are four bedrooms. You can pick one of the remaining two." She said. Ava picked the one that had the best light. Not like any of them didn't have good light. "There will be a boy here later. He is my... boyfriend you could say," She said moving to sit at the end of the bed. "Do you know anything about Greek or Roman gods, Ava?" That question was extremely out of the blue, but she answered anyway.  
"Yeah, I learned about them in school."  
"Do you know who your dad is, and how powerful you are?"  
"Well I have a feeling the wrong answer is John Williams, so I'll let you go ahead and answer that one."  
"You do not have a clue on what I'm talking about do you?"  
"Not really, no." She sighed and started her story.  
"A long time ago lived people who believed in gods and goddesses. There first came the Greeks, and then there were the Romans. You are the daughter of a Greek god."  
"Why not a Roman god?"  
"Because your father is Greek."  
"What's the difference?" I asked. She sighed again.  
"The Greeks came first, so the Romans basically are the Greeks, just a little different beliefs and different personalities."  
"So they're two people at once." Ava actually got it, but she was so distracted, she was barely paying attention.  
"Not quite, but you are getting there."  
"So, um, why does any of this matter?" Laurel was about to answer when her phone went off and she got up to get it.  
"For the love of Hades and Persephone, where did my phone go?" She muttered. She finally found it and Ava decided to check out the rest of the room. She could still hear her talking softly from the other room while Ava watched a bird outside of the window. She didn't understand how she managed to get such a good deal after her streak of bad luck. "Hello? Yes she is here." She sighed. "You can't exactly 'hurry' in a big city. Goodbye"  
"Boyfriend?"  
"Yes, he'll be here in a while. Back to the point, this matters because you are important to the Greeks."  
"Golly gee, this is such an honor. I would like to thank my multiple cats I've owned-" I got cut off by the door opening.  
"I hurried." A boy said, standing in the doorway. Good god, did they both have to look like the belonged in an ancient painting?  
"Boyfriend?" I asked again. He looked over at me, startled like he forgot why he came at all.  
"Yes, but not yours, in case you were wondering."  
"Oh no. I thought we had something special." He grinned and pointed at her like she was the best thing.  
"See Laurel, why can't you use sarcasm?" He said. She didn't even glance at him, like she was used to this.  
"Sit down, Gabriel." She said. "Ava do you know who we are?"  
"Your names yes, your stories no."  
"I am the daughter of Gaea, and Gabriel is the son of Uranus."  
"The earth and the sky... so you're gods?"  
"We were immortal for a long time, yes. But we were also technically the first humans." Ava gave her a blank stare and Gabriel said  
"I don't really get it either." She sighed.  
"We were born to where we aged like a human. We could crawl and walk by year one, and we could talk by year two. Our bodies aged with our minds until we reached the age of 5. Then we aged only every six hundred to five hundred years."  
"How old are you now?" I asked.  
"I'm fifteen, Gabriel is sixteen."  
"How does that work? Did you just start aging randomly?"  
"No. When the Greeks came, Gabriel took on those gods and started aging. When the Romans came, I did the same."  
"Explain 'took on those gods'"  
"When a new god is born, a little piece of their soul goes into ours. So we are technically every god, while still being human. Do not ask me why we're human, I do not know. I guess so we know that we can die too, just like everyone else." They both talked with a sort of grace that brought confidence, but also a lazy drawl like they had all the time in the world. Which Ava guessed they kind of did.  
"That's messed up." She muttered. Gabriel snorted and she heard him mutter something that sounded like "Welcome to the family." Just then, the doorbell rang and Gabriel got up to get it.  
"It better not be a god!" he called. "I've really had enough of them lately!"

* * *

**I don't own the Percy Jackson series. That's Uncle Rick Riordan's.  
Tumblr: bigdaddymojojo ... ya know. the usual.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"_Man is born broken. He lives by mending."__ –Anne Lamott_

"Oh, it's you again." Ava heard Gabriel say from downstairs. Laurel said it was fine for her to go down, so she did.  
"So there's the prodigy," A man said. He was plump with very black, almost purple hair. "She's not much."  
"Excuse me?" Ava said, unsure if he was talking to her. If he was, he had sass, with a shirt to match.  
"Not one of my best, but I'll accept it." Gabriel leaned over and whispered something to him. "Oooohh." He said drawling it out dramatically.  
"Um, who are you?" She asked.  
"Dionysus, god of wine, madness, drama, and parties." He sounded very proud that he was the god of getting wasted.  
"That's awesome," She said. "Aren't you also the god of leopards and other big cats?" He swept his hand across the air.  
"Of course, child. Are you wearing one? You also have horrid fashion." She looked down. She was wearing a sheer leopard print top with red jeans.  
"This isn't real leopard... just a print."  
"I will never understand mortal's fashion," he looked around for a minute then said "Where's the other one? Lauren or whoever."  
"Honestly, Dionysus." Laurel said coming down the stairs. "I've been alive longer than you, and you still won't call me by the correct name?"  
"My apologies, Lara. We must talk. You," he said pointing to Ava. "Cannot listen."  
"I'll try my best." She didn't even try to listen. She was mostly spending her time wondering if that pudgy baby man was actually a god. A while later, Laurel and Gabriel came out without the god.  
"Where'd he go?" She asked.  
"The house is protected so anything Greek or Roman cannot get in without permission, but they can leave freely." Laurel explained. They let Ava eat whatever she wanted and do whatever she wanted, but she just couldn't leave the house, which wasn't a problem anyway since she didn't like people anyway. She took a shower then read a couple pages of a book she picked up then went to bed.

_There was a woman in earth colored ancient robes. She had long brown hair, but Ava couldn't tell what age she was. She seemed every age at once. _  
_"Come here, child." She beckoned. Ava walked over to her, unable to do anything else and kneeled down. _  
_"I am Gaea, the earth mother. I know you understand how cruel the fates are, but do you realize how cruel the gods are too, young one?" _  
_"No," She whispered. "I thought they were your children."_  
_"Grandchildren," Gaea corrected. "The Titans were my children. Nonetheless, things can go wrong. Power can get to one's mind. The gods do not care for anyone but themselves. They only want power." Her voice had a slow lure to it, like she was sleepy. _  
_"I don't know anything about the gods, but how can they not care for their children, or their family? You are not the only one with a disfigured family," Ava winced, but she continued. "Help me rise, my dear. Help me defeat the gods for they need to be stopped. I will let you decide when you awaken."_

The sunlight was streaming through the curtains when Ava woke up. She walked over to her suitcase and changed then started putting clothes in drawers. She put on a Beatles shirt and an old pair of black high wasted shorts. Laurel came upstairs sometime during the morning and pressed a phone into her hand.  
"Try to only use it when you're here or in emergencies." She said. Ava looked down at the phone.  
"Is this an iPhone?" She asked.  
"Yes." Laurel looked like she just handed her a 90's cell phone, the one with the giant box that looked bigger than today's home phone.  
"Aren't these like ridiculously expensive?" she laughed.  
"We have a lot of money," She said "We've had forever it build it up. Now we're going shopping, so you might want to get a jacket. It gets cold in this city."  
"Alright..." She put on my favorite pair of boots that were long since worn out. She grabbed a sweater out of the closet and went downstairs to eat breakfast. She ate an apple and Gabriel shook his head.  
"Out of all the beautiful things in the kitchen, and you eat an apple?" She just stared at him and bit into my apple slowly. She had always loved apples ever since she was little. Her dad used to give her an apple when he would teach her French and say "Pomme." she would giggle and say it back, and her mother would smile. She then realized since her father was a god, her mother must have cheated. She didn't let that thought sink in too far as she got up to leave with Laurel.

In a few hours, they had plenty of clothes and the things Ava needed.  
"There's a camp, for people like you..." Laurel started.  
"People like me?"  
"Half bloods. They train to fight off monsters and things of that nature."  
"Excuse me though, did you say monsters?" That sounded like such a childish thing she was imagining a monster from an old movie she loved as a kid, Monster's Inc.  
"Hm, yes. Old Greek monsters such as the minotaur and the hydra."  
"Laurel, dear, why are you not directing this girl towards camp?" A woman said behind us. Laurel cringed like she would rather pour lemon juice in her eye than talk to her. Ava turned around and there was another- she bet- Greek goddess.

* * *

**Sorry for this being so upsettingly bad and short. Also, I don't own Monster's Inc, Percy Jackson characters, or anything else I may have put in here. I got an actual picture for this story now! YAY. I edited a lot. The original pictures are: ( media-cache-ec6. pinterest upload/ 265501340503632023_23kYGmRI_c. jpg) remove the spaces. And for the leopard: ( media-cache-ec3. pinterest upload/ 282741682826040440_zA857cwS_c. jpg) You'll understand the leopard soon enough if you haven't already figured it out. :)  
DeviantArt: rainy129  
Tumblr: bigdaddymojojo**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4- The Camper  
**_"It's funny: I always imagined when I was a kid that adults had some kind of inner toolbox full of shiny tools: the saw of discernment, the hammer of wisdom, the sandpaper of patience. But then when I grew up I found that life handed you these rusty bent old tools - friendships, prayer, conscience, honesty - and said 'do the best you can with these, they will have to do'. And mostly, against all odds, they do." **–Anne Lamott**_

"Laurel, dear, why are you not directing this girl towards camp?" A woman said behind us. Laurel cringed like she would rather pour lemon juice in her eye than talk to her. Ava turned around and there was another- she bet- Greek goddess.

"Hera…" Laurel said slowly. "We will in a couple days."

"Why not now?"

"Because we want to try to explain more to her."

"You're not even Greek," Hera said. "I do not know why I am talking to you."

"I don't know either." Laurel snapped. "Sorry," She said after Hera was gone. "I have no patience for her." Ava was about to reply, but before she could, she felt herself falling. She landed in the middle of what looked like an archery range, on top of someone. She groaned and sat up.

"I'm liking the gods less every day." She muttered.

"Who are you? You got dirt in my cornea." Someone said in a nasally, snotty voice.

"Excuse me," She said. "Don't sound so disgusted." He sniffed.

"Cute-" He started to sneer when she cut him off.

"I know I am. Continue." He was standing there for a while trying to find something to say. Eventually he came up with;  
"Just go to the big house, freak!"

"Alright sniffles. I'm on my way." I said laughing.  
"I have allergies!" He yelled after her. Ava took a guess that the big house was the literal _big_ house. She got stopped along the way by Hera Almighty herself.

"Yes?" Ava asked impatiently.

"Is that any way to speak to a goddess?"

"For me it is."

"I could incinerate you right here!"

"Well. You took all this time getting me here, wouldn't that be a waste?" She ignored that statement completely.

"Your things are in the cabin of your godly parentage."

"So it's like a scavenger hunt?"

"No, you're not allowed to look."

"Then what's the point of that?" Ava guessed she decided she was done answering her questions because she left. When she finally got to the house that was big, she just let herself in. Apparently that's what everyone did because no one looked up. There was a man with a scruffy brown beard in a wheelchair and the god she saw yesterday. Dionysus. They looked like they were playing a game of cards while a girl with curly blond hair was talking to them.

"Chiron, we have to do it now or it'll be too late. They're already too close to the shore."

"I'm afraid it's a trap."

"It might be, but it'll cause too much damage to leave it. It's a disadvantage either way."

"Um, excuse me." Ava said. The blond girl looked up.

"Beckendorf's ready. He'll get Percy." The wheelchair guy nodded then turned to me.

"Hello child, what's your name?"

"Ava Williams. Is this the camp Laurel was talking about?"

"Ahh, yes. Laurel has explained to me you were coming, but not quite so soon. Is she here?"

"No. Hera dropped me on a kid.

"Pardon me?"

"That's what I thought too." He excused himself to go talk to Hera and said he would be back in a bit to find her a guide to show her around camp. She decided it wasn't worth the hassle telling him that Hera was already gone. She would probably show up again anyway. Ava went around the table and sat down in front of Dionysus and stared at him.

"Would you like something?"

"Yeah, actually. I would like to know why I'm here, who I am, and who my father is."

"Nope, sorry, can't help you." She glared at him in a way that let him know she wasn't stupid.

"Look. I think you do. Would you like to rephrase?" He shook his head and smirked.

"You remind me of your mother." She had a sudden sinking feeling. She decided she didn't want to confront it, so she feigned ignorance with surprising accuracy.

"What… how did you know my mother?"

"Let secrets be secrets, child. That's what she always said." Ava narrowed her eyes. _Do all gods have to be so impossible?_ She thought. He stopped shuffling the cards and stared back at her. There was once a time when she would have backed down. Shifted in her seat and shrank away, but that was a while back. She had a feeling they would have continued to stare at each other for a long time if Chiron hadn't come back in the room. Ava looked up and the blond girl was there again.

"Annabeth will show you around camp." He said and nodded towards the blond haired girl. Ava gave Dionysus another glare then went with the girl.

"And this is the archery range." Annabeth said, pointing at the lake. She was doing that the whole time, with her mind clearly somewhere else.

"Annabeth, what's going on?" She looked over at Ava as if just seeing her.

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone looks really worried, half the people are pacing with full battle armor on, and you just said that lake is an archery range." Annabeth sighed.

"This was a bad time for you to come."

"You have archery ranges and swords, and you fight monsters. I think any time is a bad time for me to come." Ava pointed out. Annabeth gave her a look of bewilderment.

"I-yeah, sure," She said. "We're actually in the middle of sinking a ship…" Ava looked around just to make sure there wasn't a ship in the lake, although she knew there wasn't. One thing she did know was that camp just got a whole lot weirder.

"Is there a purpose for that, or is it just a regular Monday ritual?"

"It's a long story… That hopefully you don't have to worry about." She looked at Ava with uncertainty that made it clear Ava did have to worry about it; now and later.

* * *

**Okay so I'm laughing at my writing. Anyway, someone asked me when this was taking place. This is right before the titan war. GOOD TIMIN' RIGHT? Percy Jackson is not my books or characters. Those are Uncle Ricky Booboo's. I have also come to the conclusion that Thalia is my all time favorite character, and I ship Thuke way too hard. Also, sorry it took so long to upload I was (insert some really convincing excuse here). Okay babes, that's all for now it looks like. If you have any questions, just ask. If you need help with writing, or just anything, feel free to PM me. **


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